166 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



A little ciphering will show that there is no profit in the 

 production of meat products in the west on the basis on 

 which they are there fed. Accustomed to rob the soil as a 

 source of his wealth, the western farmer expects, when he 

 feeds out a crop, to get full pay for his time, without esti- 

 mating the manure as a part of the income ; while many 

 feeders demand a profit for the operation, otherwise they 

 prefer to sell the crops direct. Thus, where they rate land 

 as it is rated at fifty to one hundred dollars per acre, it is 

 quickly seen that three pasturings, or the cost of interest on 

 two acres each season at the prevailing rate of eight per cent 

 interest, and feeding of hay and grain for three winters, with 

 the interest, risk and cost of labor on the same, narrows the 

 margin of profit, especially under the system that prevails in 

 the beef-making districts, where the entire year of service of 

 a cow is necessary for the production of a calf. Interest, 

 risk, care and depreciation of the cow will cost not less than 

 twenty to twenty-five dollars per year in the settled west. 

 Interest on pastures will amount to no less than eighteen 

 dollars at six per cent interest. 



Three and one-half tons of hay at six dollars and one and 

 one-half tons of grain at ten dollars will add thirty-six dollars 

 for cost of feed. Then there is the interest, salt, attendance 

 and risk to be added, which makes the total cost for a 

 fifteen-hundred-pound steer upwards of eighty dollars. At 

 the best this reduces the prices of beef making in the Missis- 

 sippi valley to the level of interest on capital and the lowest 

 rates on day labor. This the average western farmer does 

 not get in beef making to-day. 



I have already spoken highly of the mental equipment of 

 the western farmer and of his physical energy, and am called 

 upon to explain his present unfavorable financial condition. 

 Just as we have become settled in old practices to the detri- 

 ment of our interests, has he become largely fixed in expect- 

 ing his income from the natural fertility of the soil. Its 

 response is now below the necessities of our civilization. It 

 is a slow process for a great people fixed in a method to 

 reverse that method. The west will be hampered even in 

 the purpose of recuperative farming by the fact that the 

 receipts of the farm have largely been expended in meeting 



